The Unseen Movie Review

Super Size Me

You know that feeling you get every time you succumb to one of those utterly irrational desired to go and get a Big Mac? That faint feeling of nausea, the slow realisation of precisely what it is you’ve just put into your mouth, the greasy aftertaste, and the knowledge that even though you may feel fuller you have received precisely no nutrition from the three quid’s worth of gristly you’ve just consumed? Now imagine eating nothing but McDonalds’ meals for a month.

This is precisely what director Morgan Spurlock decided to do for his first foray into the world of documentary feature films. For a month he set himself the task of eating three meals a day at McDonalds and seeing what the effects would be on his previously healthy body. Yep, the results are pretty predictable, but that’s not entirely the point.

Prompted by one of those news items about fat people in America suing the fast food chain for making them obese, Spurlock decided to test the evidence for himself. As he set about making his movie, the case that prompted it was dismissed by the US courts, with Congress simultaneously passing a bill that would protect the fast food industry from any similar claims in future. Of course, fast food is not addictive in the way cigarettes are, but does that make it any less damaging? Does that make the manufacturers of such inherently unhealthy fodder any less responsible for their customers’ slow decline than the tobacco companies that have been successfully sued so frequently over the last few years? These are the questions this film explores.

By the end of his month at MaccyDs, Spurlock has gained nearly two stone, suffered mood swings, loss of sex drive, and nearly catastrophic liver damage. His experiment is likened by his doctor to someone on an extended alcohol binge, and has similar effects.

Very much influenced by Michael Moore, Spurlock is less confrontational in his approach, if equally controversial for the defenders of big business in his basic methods. His detractors might argue that if someone ate ANY sort of food and nothing else for thirty days solid, they would suffer health problems. Plus there are obviously few – if any – people who eat McDonalds meals every single day.

But that is not the point here. Also explored is the US school food system – not so dissimilar to our own – in which children are presented with an endless supply of nutritionless junk and fatty, carbohydrate-rich filler. The point Spurlock is making is simply that some people have little choice but to live off junk. It is relatively cheap, requires no cookery skills, and fills you up fast. If you are on a low income, it is a very easy option.

So, Spurlock asks, why do we continue to allow companies to produce products that we know to be harmful? How can we allow ourselves to consume substances which are so evidently bad for us? One thing is for certain, if you haven’t already been put off Big Macs by the likes of Eric Schlosser’s book Fast Food Nation, this will more than do the job. You owe it to your diet to check it out…

posted by Nosemonkey @ 12:00 AM